The Crow: Silver Eclipse
by The Pale States
Summary: Aidan Paige returns home into the arms of his girlfriend Chloe. But after a night of pure love, death comes knocking on the Paige family door. Aidan now must return and avenge the deaths of his loved ones and possibly stop the fall of life as we know it.
1. Chapter I: Awakenings

When we have gone as far as the body, mind, and soul will take us, we meet the Eternal One.  
  
The Crow  
  
Old beyond all imagination and one unable to forgive, it is there to guide those who have passed beyond the mortal coil and reach for the afterlife with outstretching hands.  
  
Then, there are the very few souls who deserve one more chance after death. One more chance that is given through passage and guidance. One more chance that is granted by The Crow. One more chance to put the wrong things right.  
  
_-^-_ Chapter I: Awakenings _-^-_  
  
A/N: This chapter contains mutilation of a miner and gory images. Please note this as a warning to those that find the said things sickening  
  
He swallowed a mouthful of air that filled his lungs and reenergized his mind. He could feel it swimming with thoughts that he couldn't understand or even hear. He felt his heart begin pumping and his blood begin circulating through the veins that traced a road map through his entire body.  
  
His eyes flew open and the first thing he saw was a spinning black fan that spread cool air onto his entire body. The air calmed him and he began regaining composure. He tried to remember where he was but found the all more pressing question to be who he was. He dipped into the swirl of thoughts that ran through his brain but came up with nothing. He couldn't remember anything. Not even who he was.  
  
Then his nervous system began to flare up and he immediately felt pain all throughout his chest and legs. He could no longer feel his legs from the thigh down. They were seemingly broken. And his chest was full of bullet holes that went in the front and out the back. But just as he was feeling the entirety of his pain and before he had even gained breath to scream he heard a bird scream inside his mind and felt these injuries begin to heal themselves.  
  
The bones that had lain uselessly under muscle, blood, and skin were now reattaching themselves to one another and being put back into place. The holes that pockmarked his chest and back were closing up and leaving nothing but tanned skin. After all of his maladies were seemingly healed he heard the screaming ring not only throughout his mind but also through his current surroundings.  
  
He raised his torso from the rug that lay beneath him and looked forward. He found himself staring at a black glistening crow that stared right back at him with renewed intensity.  
  
'Finally, you're up. I thought you would never come around. Well come on then, we have a lot of work ahead of us,' spoke the crow.  
  
The man looked at the bird in confusion. Then he realized that he had heard the crow speak throughout his mind while he actually just cawed liked a normal crow. It was an odd feeling to have something speak in your mind. It felt like a normal thought, but with personality.  
  
'Didn't you here me? I said we have work, now come on.'  
  
The man that sat on the rug floor opened his eyes wide and looked at the carrion in fear. He didn't think that animals could talk and he didn't want anything to do with one that could. He quickly began to scramble to his feet and run backwards. But once he had gotten to his feet and turned around he found a horror that no human should ever have to face.  
  
He stared at a horror that contained three dead bodies two looked vaguely of a middle-aged man and woman while the other was by the looks of it, the corpse of a small girl. The man and woman were slaughtered there bodies were hacked with a large knife that left wounds that went in to the bone. The white glistening bone was sharp contrast to the deep red color of the blood that seeped from the body's wounds and soaked into the green carpet.  
  
The small girl was much worse. Not because of the mutilation that took place because the body was less destroyed than the other pair, but simply because of the age of the child. She looked to be about 5 or 6 with her light brown hair captured at the top of her hair in a small silk bow that had been splattered with the lifeblood of the innocent girl. Her legs had been hit with the same deep knife wounds as the other two and at one point had been completely sliced off. Her chest was no longer there with it being destroyed and cut open with the same knife.  
  
The sight made the man sink to his knees and vomit on a space of rug that had not been tarnished with the red liquid. He threw his hands down to keep himself from falling right into the blood. As his hands sprung onto the ground he landed his left hand on the arm of the middle-aged man, touching the watch and skin.  
  
The thoughts and memories that had before sat in a spinning whirlpool in his mind now became ever clear and presented themselves in his eyes. His whole body began to spasm and he fell into the blood that lay beside the man. He took no notice because his mind was racing from the sudden burst of thought and memory that sprang forth into his minds eye. 


	2. Chapter II: Proposal

_-^-_ Chapter II: Proposals _-^-_  
  
~ 6 hours before ~  
  
The steering wheel spun to the right in the grip of well-tanned hands as the light that hung from the thick metal chord turned green. Cars flowed behind him and over took him speeding forward. He had never understood that strange urge. The one that asks the subject to go faster than the ones that are already going too fast. Nothing for him to worry about, he had more important things on his mind.  
  
He turned onto a suburban house lined street in his dark gray '89 Firebird and sped by house after house in a blur of motion until he came to a gray home with a big red door. He pulled onto the side of the curb and parked the vehicle. He flowed out of the car and onto the sidewalk. He navigated the sidewalk maze and approached the big red door of the Garnet's home.  
  
Before he even had a chance to raise his hand and ring the small luminous button that would ring the doorbell, the large red door swung open and released what at first look appeared to be blur of brown and lilac. The man was thrown back by the force and almost fell back onto the lawn behind him. But somehow he remained standing and regained his balance.  
  
The brown and lilac blur was actually a human girl. She had jumped into his arms and now was wrapping him in a passionate kiss. They both broke away breathlessly and she got down hugging him around the middle so tightly that he thought she would crack a few ribs. He held her against him and laid his head atop hers just reveling in the feel of her presence.  
  
She pulled away from him and shot him a look of annoyance, "Aidan Paige, How long have you been back?" the girl said.  
  
Aidan looked down at his watch, "One hour and thirteen minutes ago," he recited.  
  
"Where the hell have you been?"  
  
"My mom made me unpack."  
  
"Well I guess I can forgive you since I'm so glad to see you again."  
  
"Chloe, I have only been gone for two weeks and don't give me that look. You know I had to go, my dad had to go for business and he wouldn't let me out of it remember."  
  
"Yeah, but it's hurt me not to be with you for that long," Chloe said hugging him again and tighter.  
  
"It's hurt me too beautiful," Aidan said kissing the top of her head.  
  
"Well, if it's not the Silver Cowboy himself," said a voice coming from the door.  
  
"Hey, Mr. Garnet nice to see you again," Aidan said, leading Chloe up to her door and shaking his hand.  
  
"Nice to see you too son," spoke Mr. Garnet returning the handshake.  
  
He led the couple into their home and shut the door. They walked to the dining room and Mr. Garnet handed Aidan a hot cup of coffee.  
  
"So what have you been up to my boy?" Mr. Garnet said cheerfully.  
  
"Oh nothing much," Aidan said, "went to Washington DC with the family because dad had business there. Saw the sites, did the whole tourist thing."  
  
"How is you're dad by the way?"  
  
"Oh, he's fine. Working all the time and he can never seem to secure a place in a different town."  
  
"Are you sure that your family should move? I mean with all the work you all put into that house over there."  
  
"Well, I know it took a while to get it all fixed up but still. Lecho de Muerte ha been scraping the bottom of the barrel for quite some time and it isn't getting any better. It would be best for all of us to just get out of here while we can."  
  
As Aidan was saying all of this, he held Chloe's hand in his left hand while his right hand was nervously fiddling with a small cloth encased box that was held in his right jean pocket.  
  
"Hello there Aidan," said a female voice coming from the doorway of the dining room.  
  
"Hi Mrs. Garnet," Aidan said shaking her hand as well.  
  
"Aidan was just telling us how he and his family went to see Washington DC," Mr. Garnet piped up.  
  
"Well what were you doing there," Mrs. Garnet said trying to make conversation.  
  
All three Garnet's and Aidan spent the next 45 minutes chatting happily along about Washington and just things in general. Chloe's parents had always liked Aidan because of his work ethic. They were from the Midwest and respected him. They thought that he was a good fit for their daughter who was somewhat lazy and kicked back while Aidan seemed to take responsibility for things but was a little kicked back. They thought that they balanced each other out.  
  
After they had steadily run out of subjects to discuss, Aidan knew that he couldn't stall any longer.  
  
"It was nice of you to come by and see us," Mrs. Garnet said with a smile.  
  
"Actually, I came here for another reason as well," Aidan said nervously.  
  
All three Garnets looked at him with puzzled looks etched on their faces.  
  
"The big reason I came was. . .," Aidan closed his eyes and took a deep breath that captured the taste of Chloe's fruity perfume. He then let it out with a long sigh.  
  
He opened his eyes and stared at Chloe who looked cutely puzzled. Her cloudy blue eyes looking right back at him with brunette hair tucked behind her ears. Her smooth skin the color of alabaster that contrasted to the lilac of her blouse. He looked at this beautiful 18-year-old woman that sat in front of his face and knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.  
  
Shakily, Aidan got down on one knee in front Chloe. Her and her mother both gasped while Chloe's father just widened his eyes to frightening size. Aidan pulled the cloth-encased box from his jeans pocket and opened it in front of Chloe.  
  
The ring was a white gold band that held a single diamond. The diamond was the shape of the heart that Aidan wished to give to her. Chloe gasped yet again at the sight of the precious stone. Her eyes looked from the ring to her love's face. His light-brown hair that fell to mid-ear shadowed his eyes that she knew to be a dark brown. His strong chin and jar bone turned up to her face, as was his scar that ran from under hit right eye to his ear. He looked so vulnerable at this moment.  
  
"You know what I'm going to ask, but tradition dictates that I ask it anyway. Chloe Garnet, will you marry me and be my wife through sickness and in health for as long as we both shall live?" Aidan recited from days of practice.  
  
Chloe looked from her love's face and looked to her parents with hope on her face. They looked back at her, awoken from their trance. They smiled at her and nodded. Chloe smiled at looked back to Aidan, tears beginning to cloud her vision.  
  
"Yes, of course!" Chloe said bursting with excitement.  
  
Aidan smiled from ear to ear and got up from the ground capturing his new fiancée in a tight hug releasing all of his tension. She hugged him back with just as much intensity. Aidan let her go and leaned his face down to her hers and wrapped her lips with his giving a kiss as if he would never do so again.  
  
They pulled apart and Aidan removed the ring from its box and slipped onto her right ring finger. Chloe looked up at Aidan and smiled just as big as he. Their eyes looked at each other with deep love that could never be broken. Little did Aidan and Chloe know that that night their eternal bliss would be cut short when the crow came for a visit.  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own any of the rights to The Crow, James O'Barr does. _-^-_ 


	3. Chapter III: Smiles

_-^-_ Chapter III: Smiles _-^-_  
  
Aidan Paige's dead eyes flew open. He was face to face with what had once been his father. He looked reminiscent of Aidan himself. He had the same chin and jaw bone while his eyes were a light blue with glasses that allowed him to see things other than blurry shapes and colors.  
  
Aidan turned from the face. It was no longer his father and he would not treat the dead corpse like him. The same went for the other two corpses. They were not his family. His family was probably residing in a long line at the pearly gates of heaven waiting to be escorted in.  
  
Aidan got to his feet and came face to beak with the crow yet again. The bird looked newly wet from the rain that was pouring from the sky outside. He could still hear the rain splatter on the roof like small explosions in his mind.  
  
He could hear and see things that he wasn't looking at like he was looking through someone or something else's eyes in the back of his mind. And they weren't a normal person's eyes. They looked normal around the edges while the center magnified the object so you got a better look at it. It was odd seeing through what he thought was the crow's eyes while looking out of his own at the same time. It seemed odd but it felt right.  
  
'Are you ready, now? Like I said before, we have a lot of work ahead of us and there is a lot we still don't know,' said the crow seriously.  
  
Aidan just stared at the crow and then nodded slowly, an anger filled stare covering his face.  
  
'Do you know what you must do?'  
  
Aidan nodded again, "I've been brought back. Brought back from the dead. I must kill those who have wronged me. Those bastards who slaughtered my family and killed me," Aidan spoke aloud, words that were filled with white- hot hate.  
  
'Well, if you are to be the avenging angel, might as well look the part.'  
  
The crow took flight down the hall to the right of Aidan. Aidan followed the black bird into his little sister's room. The place was just the way she had left it. The covers on her bed were pulled back, ready for the little girl who had slept there to climb back in. She would never climb back into that bed. She would never do anything. She would never live out any of the dreams that she was compelled to achieve. She would never see any new sites. She would never go to high school or college. She would never get a job. She would never live her life.  
  
A silent tear ran down the face of Aidan Paige at the thought of the life his sister would never have. Then a scream rang through the air around him and shook him from his thoughts.  
  
'Hey, man. This isn't a time to get mushy all of a sudden. Remember what they did, not what she didn't do," the crow spoke.  
  
Aidan looked to the face of the crow and nodded. At those words a fire ignited inside his dead heart that lay beneath his chest plate. The thought of what they did to her and his parents sent him into a fury. He stumbled backwards and punched at the wall, creating a huge hole without feeling any of it. He stumbled into what had been their living room and began demolishing things.  
  
He flipped the couch onto the fireplace with a roar and threw the big screen TV into the wall causing it to go through creating a man accessible hole. He had lifted a green leather love seat above his head when the crow flew in and landed on top of it.  
  
'None of this helping your cause. You can't get to your family by destroying walls and throwing furniture you know.'  
  
Aidan knew this to be true. He wasn't helping anything, probably just hurting things. Aidan began walking down the hall again dropping the chair behind him. He stepped into his sister's room yet again. The crow flew in from behind him and landed on a set of upright bottles that sat in the corner. Aidan walked over to them and bent down to see. They were all the basic colors that should be contained in a set of paints.  
  
'You know what you must do.'  
  
Aidan nodded and picked up two particular bottles of paint. They debatably didn't contain colors at all. The thought brought a smile to his face. It was a bright smile that showed that the eyes had seen something comical. But then the smile changed, changed into a devilish grin that showed pure hatred and malice within it. A smile that he would paint upon his face to show the demons he was smiling. Smiling ever more.  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does. _-^-_ 


	4. Chaper IV: Perfect

_-^-_ Chapter IV: Perfect _-^-_  
  
~ 5 hours before ~  
  
Aidan felt the warmth of Chloe's hand in his. It was welcomed warmth, one he looked forward to when they were old and gray. She sat there next to him, cuddled into his chest. She kept staring at the heart shaped diamond that sat on the white gold band of her ring. He had told her that that was his heart that sat on that ring and she should take good care of it. She had just smiled at the statement and kissed him once again.  
  
He just stared down at her while her parents chatted about past things that had happened to their daughter in the front seat of their car. He would pick his car up later since he was going to be over at there home quite often and vice versa. Chloe's parents were very happy with the idea of their daughter getting married to Aidan, the Silver Cowboy as they had come to call him.  
  
Aidan felt a jerk in the car and knew that they had parked. He followed Chloe out of the side door of the car, their hands still entwined. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder once they were both out of the vehicle, and that was how they presented themselves when they walked into Aidan's home.  
  
They were met with multiple hugs from the occupants of the house. Aidan's parents were the first to congratulate them. They wrapped the engaged couple in one huge one and then followed with individual ones. They had known that Aidan was going to propose to Chloe for some time. It had been all too obvious. He had always been fiddling with that ring box and he had been reciting his proposal in his room for weeks.  
  
"Oh, I'm so happy for the both of you," Aidan's mother said as she grasped Chloe, her eyes beginning to cloud over in tears.  
  
"I'm proud of you Aid," Aidan's father said, clapping his son on the back.  
  
"Thank you very much, Mr. and Mrs. Paige," Chloe said through the mess of embracing.  
  
"Oh, dear don't be so formal. Call me Beth," Aidan's mother said waving off the 'Mrs.'.  
  
"And call me Alex," Aidan's father said hugging Chloe as he said it.  
  
"I'll remember next time. . . Beth and Alex," Chloe said shyly.  
  
"CHLOE!!!" came a shout from behind the parents who had conjured in front of the couple in the front entrance.  
  
A small girl began scrambling through the legs of the adults and then proceeded to run into the arms of the awaiting 18 year-old.  
  
"Rebecca!"  
  
Chloe hugged the 5 year old to her chest with their heads side by side. The two females had grown very close in the time that Aidan and Chloe had known each other. They had gone with each other almost everywhere they went. They would go shopping with one another; go to each other's birthday parties and everything else. Now they could do all that with one another all the time now that Chloe was to become part of the family.  
  
"It's so good to see you again, baby girl," Chloe said hugging the child tighter.  
  
"I missed you too Clo," said Rebecca innocently. "So now you going to be my sister?"  
  
"Yeah, I will once me and your brother get married."  
  
"YAY!"  
  
Chloe set Rebecca on the ground and the child pulled her into the kitchen for something to drink. The two mothers followed leaving the men to themselves.  
  
"So, how is this place holding up?" said Mr. Garnet trying to make conversation.  
  
"Pretty good so far. We haven't lived in it for very long so I don't know if it will stay like this or not," Alex said.  
  
As they were saying this, Aidan went to a nearby armchair and retrieved small silver orb that had three intricate lines etched on its surface. They were all next to one another and formed circles that overlapped other circles. It was quite beautiful sphere and Aidan loved this things. When he was stressed or needed to think, he would grab one of his eight orbs that he had obtained in a discount store, and he would just pass it back and forth from one hand to the other.  
  
These orbs were one of the two reasons that the Garnet's and pretty much everyone else who knew him had started calling him the Silver Cowboy. The other reason being the fact that he usually got money from odd jobs that included manual labor; helping build houses, painting houses hauling large objects, thing of that nature. He had a good knack for it too because of the fact that he worked very hard at anything that he tried.  
  
"Aid, are you listening?" his father's voice awoke Aidan from his thoughts.  
  
He had just been absently passing the ball from one hand to the other as he thought of the origins of the Silver Cowboy. His father had been talking to him and he hadn't heard a word of what he had been saying.  
  
"I'm sorry dad what did you say?" Aidan said, trying to make up for his wanderings.  
  
"I said, have you heard about the new defensive line coach the Colts got?"  
  
The next four hours were spent mostly with the men talking of sports and women while the females talked of wedding plans for Chloe and Aidan's wedding ceremony. They also ate dinner and spoke as a conjoined group as well. The day seemed to be going perfectly for Aidan; he had proposed to the love of his life and she had accepted, his family was incredibly happy that he was getting married to Chloe, as were the Garnets. Everyone was happy and laughing, cheerful and exuberant for the newly engaged couple. Everyone was happy and that made his life perfect.  
  
At eleven, the Garnets decided that they should head back to their house and get some sleep for the morning, much to the protest of Chloe.  
  
"Mom, can't I spend the night over here tonight? I have before, why now of all the days do you not let me sleep over?" Chloe whined to her mother.  
  
"Hon, you need to get some sleep and I don't you'll get any here," her mother said, giving her a pointed look.  
  
"We wouldn-"  
  
"Clo, I think you should go home and sleep," Aidan said from behind her.  
  
Chloe turned around and looked at her fiancée, pouting, "But Aid. . . "  
  
"No buts. You mother's right. You wouldn't get any sleep here because we would be talking all night."  
  
"Yeah alright, I'll go."  
  
"Ok then, we'll be off bye," said Mrs. Garnet as her and her husband walked to their car, waving goodbye.  
  
Chloe gave each of Aidan's parents a big hug before she left and bent down and hugged her soon to be sister as well. Then she turned to her fiancée.  
  
"I really don't want to go," she said as they walked out to the front porch together, her head resting on his shoulder.  
  
"I know I don't want you to go either. Bur you need some sleep and you won't get that here," Aidan said turning to Chloe.  
  
Aidan stared into her cloudy blue eyes and felt that if he looked into those beautiful eyes long enough, that he could actually get lost in their entirety and no one would find him. Aidan tucked a loose strand of hair behind her right ear and cradled her head in his hand. He leaned in slowly and gently pressed his lips against hers in a soft kiss.  
  
After a few seconds they pulled away from one another and pressed their foreheads together.  
  
"I love you," Chloe said.  
  
"I love you," Aidan said.  
  
They stared into one another's eyes one last time. Then she walked back to her car and got into the backseat. As the car pulled away, Chloe looked one last time at Aidan and blew him a kiss. He played along and caught the kiss, putting it in his pocket for safekeeping. They locked eyes one last time. . .  
  
Then the car was out of site and Aidan was left there standing in the middle of their front lawn, with a smile on his face. He knew at that moment that his life was utterly perfect.  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does. _-^-_ 


	5. Chapter V: Embraces

_-^-_ Chapter V: Embraces _-^-_  
  
Aidan walked back into his home with a soft smile placed upon his face. The rest of the Paige's were gathered in the front room on the different chairs and couch that the room contained. They looked up at his entry and all smiled at the same time. Aidan sat down on the couch next to his little sister with their parents sitting across from them.  
  
"Our son is getting married. This just doesn't seem real," said Beth to her husband.  
  
"I know, I know," Alex replied.  
  
"So when are you and Chloe getting married," Rebecca said innocently.  
  
"Well I don't know baby girl," Aidan said, gathering her into his lap. "I should hope it would be within the next year because I don't think I could wait any longer than that."  
  
"Chloe mentioned that she would like to marry within the next 6 months," remarked Beth.  
  
"That would be fine with me."  
  
The two Paige parents came over to the couch that lay beneath their two children and they sat on wither side of them.  
  
"I'm really proud of you two, I hope you know that," Alex said, looking at his kids with a smile.  
  
His facial features were very alike to his son's. He had the same strong jaw and chin. His eyes were light blue with glasses perched on the bridge of his nose as a way of turning terribly blurry objects into just plain blurry objects, or do his son would always kid him. His hair, light brown like his sons, was parted to the left, as he would say, like any other self- respecting gentlemen. His build was an odd thing, for he wasn't a muscleman nor was he a weakling. He would always wear button up shirts tucked into his jeans or Dockers. He was a sort of an old fashioned gentlemen.  
  
"Proud of us for what papa," said Rebecca.  
  
"Well, you've had to live in this town for one thing," piped up their mother.  
  
Their mother was very different from their father, who was very responsible and a very work hard kind of guy, Beth was a free spirit. She went with the flow of things and felt that you should use your heart more than you use your mind. She was a slender woman who made it a habit to usually wear ankle low dresses that had some kind of intricate design on them. She was a very beautiful woman who could probably still get any man that she wanted. With her raven feather hair that came down to the small of her back and bright green eyes that seemed to see the deepest darkest secrets in your soul, she could entrap anyone, but she had chosen Alex to be with and then he had proposed to her. Then not long after they had had Aidan and then Rebecca.  
  
"That's true," said Aidan.  
  
"Also, you've been very understanding about the fact that I'm at work a lot of the time, most kids would hate their parents if that happened. You are also very good children who have manners and opinions and not walking zombies," Alex said with a smile.  
  
"Well, that's somewhat of a testament to both of you. I mean it's a showing of the fact that you both raised us to be good people."  
  
"True, I suppose. We're also proud of you because you're just such wonderful people. You help others when they need to be helped, you both have very good manners, and you work hard when things need to be done. I mean, neither me nor your mother could have asked for better children than the two of you."  
  
"And now, you're both growing up so quickly. Aidan you're getting married and then you'll move out and Rebecca's getting beiger by the second," replied Beth, causing the 5 year old to puff out her chest.  
  
"We just wanted you both to know that we are very proud of you, and that we would do anything for our children."  
  
"We'd do anything for our parents as well, right Becca?" Aidan asked his little sister, turning to her.  
  
The child nodded vigorously, hugging her father around the middle. He hugged her back and this caused the other two members of the Paige family to join in and make it a group embrace. They all grasped each other, each thinking of the lives that they had made with the other three in the human circle.  
  
Alex was thinking of the fact that these three people had stood by him through the thick and thin. Through when he couldn't find a job and they were living in a 3-room apartment and being evicted, through the campaign that had gone on for William Stevenson when he had been running for California Governor and Alex as his assistant. Through all of life's trials and tribulations, this family, his family had always been there to give their opinions and help him.  
  
Beth was thinking about when she had been giving birth to Aidan and Alex had been there the entire time. He had gotten her to the hospital in a flash that saved his car interior from getting ruined. She thought of when She had been pregnant with Rebecca and she had both men waiting on her hand and foot, getting her food even she didn't ask for it, always asking if she needed her pillows fluffed as she lay on the couch watching soap operas. She thought of how Rebecca had looked when she had dumped grape juice on the rug, comically innocent with her hands on the side of her face and her mouth wide open. And then she said something that caused Beth to laugh even to this day. She had said "Oh no, who dumped my juice?"  
  
Rebecca was thinking of how her family had always helped her with her homework when she had problems and that happened a lot. She wasn't stupid she just never listened. Aidan would always help with the English and grammar and her mom and dad would always help her with her worse subject; math. They had always helped her and caused her to get decent grades.  
  
Aidan was thinking of how they had all been there to help him get the odd jobs that he performed for money. They would ask there friends, or in Rebecca's case, her friends parents. He also thought of how his mother and father had raised him. When he was younger he would always be goofing off and shirking his chores. They would always discipline him by having him make dinner under close supervision, while he wasn't allowed to eat any of it himself. This caused him to no longer shirk chores and become a great cook, or so everyone told him.  
  
The four family members, lost in thought, continued their embrace. They could feel each other under their hands and arms. They all loved each other very deeply and would be destroyed if anything happened to any of their family.  
  
Because they were lost in thought, none of them heard the car park in their driveway, nor did they hear the footsteps that rang outside on the sidewalk in front of their home. But what they did hear was the doorbell ring once. They all turned around at the sound, still clutching at one another. Then, with a well-placed kick, the door flung open with a loud bang. Four men stood in the doorway of the Paige's home. The front most man looked at the four hugging family members from behind mirrored sunglasses and smiled.  
  
"Ahhh, are we having a Kodak moment? I wish I had a camera to capture this moment for you but I think that this moment will stick in your mind anyway," he said, pulling a long, wide knife from a sheath held on his back.  
  
Alex, Beth, Aidan, and Rebecca all said that they would do anything for the other member's of the Paige family. None of them would live long enough to prove that statement. But in death, only Aidan would be given the chance to prove himself.  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does _-^-_ 


	6. Chapter VI: Preamble

_-^-_ Chapter VI: Preamble _-^-_  
  
The thought of the man who slaughtered his entire family sent Aidan into a convulsion of white-hot anger that burned in his heart, mind, and soul. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he roared of his anguish. He clenched his hands digging his fingernails into the blood caked tanned palms of his hands, leaving half-moon cuts that dripped streams of blood down his wrists. Then the cuts healed all by themselves leaving nothing but the leaked blood.  
  
Aidan calmed from his out burst and stared at his dirty hands. He turned them over and over, looking for some sign of the cuts that he had inflicted upon himself. There was no sign at all, and then the crow explained the phenomenon.  
  
'You cannot be hurt. You can be shot by all the angels of heaven and all the demons of hell and there wouldn't be a scratch upon your skin,' cawed the crow.  
  
Aidan looked at the crow in amazement until the crow screamed in annoyance, 'Hey boy, we have a lot of work ahead of us. I've said that at least two times by now. You want to look the part don't you?'  
  
The Silver Cowboy nodded and turned back to the bottles that sat on the top of the bathroom counter. Aidan thought of the man who killed him and his family and the people who watched and Aidan's blood boiled. With this pure hatred coursing through him he took the bottle of white paint and poured some onto his bloody fingers. He rubbed his callused digits through each other and when he was satisfied that they had enough paint over laying them, he pressed the full length of each finger onto his foreheads.  
  
With his fingers spread apart, he ran the fingers of his bloody hands down the length of his face. The feel of the tough skin of his fingers of the softer skin of his face was an odd feeling. He could feel each groove that made up his fingerprints and joints. And the sound that came of rubbing those grooves against the cheeks of his face was a scratchy sound that would have frustrated anyone else, but it soothed Aidan in a small way.  
  
After he had gone from forehead to chin with the white paint, he dipped two fingers from each hand into the black paint and went to work with his face. He spread the black paint across his lips very carefully. Then he haphazardly spread paint from the corners of his mouth and curved up into a malicious smile. A smile that is planted on the face of Death as he goes about his gruesome work.  
  
Now, he went to his eyes. He spread black paint on his closed eyelids from the bridge of his nose and out, leaving deadly spears between his eyes and sideburns. Aidan then re-dipped his fingers and made thick streaks that went from eyebrows to hair and from the bottom of his eyes to the lines coming from the mouth.  
  
Aidan looked from his paint covered fingers to the large mirror that hung on the wall in front of him. There were white vertical stripes from the top to the bottom of his face and violent, thick streaks of black that sprouted from his mouth and eyes. He looked so primal and full of suppressed anger that he began to laugh at the sight of himself. His laugh turned from a giggle to a cackle in a matter of seconds and pretty soon he was laughing hysterically at himself.  
  
The crow had said that he should look the part of the avenging angel and he certainly did. He looked extremely primal and he supposed that he was becoming somewhat primal, but instead of it being 'kill or be killed' its 'kill and then be killed'. The though made Aidan laugh even more hysterically and was only stopped by the crow that sat perched on the shower curtain rod.  
  
'Get a hold of yourself man; this is no time for funny business. We have to get to work, or would you like them to get away with all of this?' the annoyed crow cawed.  
  
Aidan stopped laughing abruptly and turned on the crow. Anger flaring in his eyes, anger for the idea that he wanted his killers to get away.  
  
'That's right boy, keep that anger boiling and flowing in you. You'll need before long. They have about a thirty head start and we need to make up time. There is one that isn't that far from here so you can get there on foot, you ready?'  
  
Aidan thought for a moment and studied the crow. All of it's feathers, it's beak, and it's talons. Its talons were black and sharp as spears to rain upon the wicked. Aidan turned from the crow and looked at the bottle of black paint that now lay on its side. He picked it up and poured the remaining paint onto all of his fingers and rubbed them in making the digits on each hand completely black. He looked down at them and was satisfied with the look. He then strode out of the bathroom and into his own room. He opened his closet door and fished out two new shirts. He peeled off the blood soaked, hole filled shirt from his back, revealing a washboard stomach.  
  
He threw the filthy shirt onto the rug and slipped off one of the two shirts that he had plucked from the closet. This shirt was a white plain t- shirt that was meant as an undershirt. He then slipped on the second shirt, which was a smooth black button down, long sleeved shirt that had a design of scales set atop the surface. Aidan buttoned all the bottoms but the top two and the bottom two buttons making it able to flap in the wind. He then removed the blood caked blue jeans that were encasing his legs and slid into a pair of black jeans. He strode out into the hall and stared at the black bird that sat on the top of the open door to the coat closet.  
  
'You know I don't think that any of these guys are going to compliment you on how you look. Seeing as you have been sent back here to kill all of them, I don't think that they are going to cooperate with you. So, are you ready?'  
  
Aidan nodded and walked into the front entrance of his once home where a few hours ago, he had been greeted with hugs all around from his then alive family for his engagement to Chloe. His anger flared even higher at the thought, and he rushed for the door, knocking it off its hinges, out its own doorway and out onto the lawn. The anger that was flowing through his veins fueled his body and Aidan went tearing down the street with his shirt flapping in the air that rushed past him, like a black bird on a night's breeze.  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does. _-^-_ 


	7. Chapter VII: Drinks

_-^-_ Chapter VII: Drinks _-^-_  
  
Richard was having the time of his life. His energy and enthusiasm had skyrocketed in the last few hours. Their plan was coming into being and was going as it had schemed in the months that their leaders had spent configuring it. Also, he was running on a high that you couldn't get from any of the drugs being sold on the market today. It was a high that took you to the enclosing atmosphere around the Earth and beyond. It was a high that Richard got when he murdered, or in this case was around someone getting murdered. The feel of a soul leaving it's container body and floating to the great beyond, whether it be heaven or hell, was a heated engagement that flared all of his senses to beyond their normality and sent his skin afire with dark flames. It was a quenching of his lust, a lust for death and sex, which he had done for both rituals. It was a high like no other, a high that took you through life, death, and everything in between.  
  
And at that moment, Richard was swimming in energy and he felt like he could do anything that he pleased, and the alcohol that he was constantly consuming was not doing anything to lower him off of his pedestal of power, they were only managing to turn him drunk and completely out of this reality. He felt as if he had been transported to a world where everything spun and nobody spoke coherently. Richard loved this alternate plane of existence for he was the only rock amid a swirling realm of chaos and unpredictability, a world where objects blurred to become incomprehensible colors and shapes, and the only sound came from twisting black holes in a low moan of agony that filled the cosmos.  
  
Richard was having the time of his life, really. All his life he had always been a nothing, one of the people who went to your high school and you never remembered. He was the kid who was always by himself, no friends, no one to talk to about his hopes and fears. His parents had always been far to drunk to understand anything he had ever tried to tell them. As a result of this negligence, Richard had grown a resentment and eventual hatred for everyone around him, a hatred that sounded with an intense scream that resounded throughout his gray matter, all of his waking hours, as well as all of his dreams.  
  
His dreams were always frightening affairs that he kept locked in a vault inside of his minds inner-workings. They were always centered around the phenomenon of death. He would dream of dreadfully terrible events, like, Richard loading his father's shotgun and plastering his stupefied parents' brains all over the wall painting it red. Richard would then wake up, his own dream laughing still echoing through his head, and sweating buckets that drenched his gray shirt dark. The cotton fabric would cling to his perspiration laced skin as he brought his knees to his chest, hugging them and rocking back and forth, afraid to go to sleep.  
  
That was only at the beginning of his dreams however. After a few months of gruesome events running though his brain, Richard began to take pleasure from these subconscious videos. He began to imagine himself performing slow, unmerciful deaths on all that made him angry. These thoughts twisted his heart, mind, and soul into a single loathsome creature that thrived and enjoyed his art of death dealing. Nothing could excite him more than slowly releasing a soul from its captor form and sending it to the afterlife, not even the moment in his terrible life when he had lost his virginity as he painfully raped a 13-year-old girl while he was in his 19th year of existence.  
  
And now Richard was no longer the small loner, weakling he had once been in his earlier years. Now he was a man of 43 who was still somewhat small for his age, who now had as many friends as anyone could ask for, but the most important fact was that he now had immense power. Or at least he had power coming his way, in about a week to be precise. The killing tonight was just a minute part of an already in motion grand plan that would change the entire world forever. Richard would be one of the leaders after all of their planning came to a head. He would be revered and every one would know his name, Richard Paisley. He would have people bowing before him and listening to his every word.  
  
Richard began to laugh hysterically at the thought of his power. He would never again be looked down upon, he would never again go unnoticed, and he would never again be ignored. Richard gradually stopped laughing and looked at himself in the long mirror that stretched across the entire wall behind the bar.  
  
Richard's large round head held large watery eyes and only echoes of hair stretched across the balding top. His small frail upper build gave way to also frail legs that looked as though they were only held up by demon strings that coursed blue waterways underneath the flabby rubber outer flesh. He was currently sporting a tweed tan suit with a white undershirt and tan tie. He always wore attire of this nature, for he believed that they made him look important while they only made him look even more pathetic.  
  
He was also sporting a fine number of beers in front of him as well. They weren't enough to make him completely drunk but he was getting there. And Richard planned to get as drunk as possible because he had been told that he needed to be sober for the next few days and this would be the last drinking he would do for a while. And after these few days that called for his sober self, he would be able to drink all that he wanted to and anything he wanted to. He would be living a life that he had always dreamed of having, a dream that was just within his reach.  
  
"Richard," came a whispering voice from above.  
  
Richard spun around and surveyed the bar patrons with his blurry vision. None of them were paying any attention to him, but they were looking up towards the voice. He followed their eyes to the ceiling and his own eyes widened with fear.  
  
The ceiling was a compilation of rectangular windows that allowed a person to look at the smog-choked sky. These windows met in the center of the roof, creating a triangle effect. Atop some of these windows, a dark silhouette etched the smoky glass. It was a shadow of the darkest black that seemed to contain a swirling vortex of anger and pain. It was a chaos that entrapped the viewer and froze them in their spots. The vortex began to move around the mirror boundaries with a slow determination and steps of black leather.  
  
"Richard, Richard, Richard," sighed the silhouette, "You've been a bad boy Richard, a very bad boy of the worst variety. You've been the type of bad boy that requires punishment. A punishment that can only be rained down from the heavens above in the form of a black bird."  
  
As fear slithered into the black heart of Richard Paisley, the owner of the black vortex fell through the glass smoke and rained down knife rain onto the drunks below. Richard flew his arms above his head, blocking the sharp bits from his face but in the process, cutting his arms and leaking blood. The dark angel that had spoke his name had flipped onto a pool table that was in the corner of the room. It jumped to the ground and turned in Richard's direction.  
  
What Richard saw sobered him up quickly. The man across the room was painted in a way that he would never forget, vertical stripes of white innocence laid across his face that seemed to pulse with primal power, his eyes were encircled with the black blood of the wicked with silent dark tears stretching to the gates of heaven above and reaching for the pits of hell below. His lips were covered in the black rage and curved into a menacing smile of darkness that started a stream of fluids from the center of Richards body.  
  
The patrons of the Devil's Playground had panicked and fled from the bar in fear of the ominous figure leaving the angel of death, Richard, and the bartender.  
  
"Hey buddy," the bartender exclaimed pointing a pistol at the other man, "you owe me a shitload of money for all that glass and you just scared off all my customers. What do you have to say for yourself? Huh? Say something or I will pop you full of lead you stupid mother fucker!"  
  
The man only smiled a wicked smile that made Richard's crotch only flow more.  
  
"That's it!" the bartender yelled and fired his pistol directly at the gut of the man in black across the room.  
  
The man was flung back from the impact of the lead against the flesh of his midsection, causing him to double over while still standing. Richard's eyes widened as the figure straightened up to his full height allowing the bullet hole to be seen by the two men. The small amount of blood that had seeped from the pistol wound was quickly regaining its place in the body, followed by more skin covering the hole up leaving no mark whatsoever.  
  
The bartender looked at the primal angel with widened, frightened yes. He dropped the pistol on the ground while backing up and then ran out the back door leaving only Richard and the black angel. The man turned from the door from which the bartender had exited and focused his cold eyes upon the murderer and rapist that sat across the room from him, pissing his pants.  
  
"Poor little Richard, no one to help you now. What happened to all those friends you had," said the dark being, brushing glass from the sleeves of his long sleeved shirt.  
  
Richard looked to the man in confusion and fright, "W-What are you talking about?"  
  
"Tsk, tsk, tsk Mr. Paisley. Did you think that you could do that without paying the price?"  
  
Richard licked his lips and took a short glance to the door that was to the side of him. He thought that he could get to it before this supposed dark avenger got to him.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," spoke the avenger. "You wouldn't reach the end of the bar."  
  
'How had he known that I was going for the door?' Richard thought to himself. 'He had his eyes closed.'  
  
"Oh, I have eyes everywhere Richard."  
  
"I-I don't even know you man, I didn't do anything to you," Richard finally said after gathering his courage.  
  
The avenger opened his eyes and began to laugh slightly with a vicious smile painted upon his lips. With a speed that Richard couldn't see clearly that only came out as a blur, the avenger had closed the distance between the two of them and grabbed a hold of his tweed jacket and hurled him through a table. Richard's vision blurred even worse until he could barely see anything. The man came down on Richard again and lifted him until there faces almost touched.  
  
"Look you pathetic worm, look upon your judge!"  
  
When Richard's eyes cleared he looked closely at the man's face. He recognized the face; he had seen that face only a few hours ago. He was Aidan Paige, the son of the traitor. But, no it couldn't be him; he had watched him get filled with lead.  
  
"B-But your dead, I saw you die, I felt you die!" Richard screamed into Aidan's face.  
  
"The angels have looked upon me with pity Richard Paisley. They have given me something that almost no one in the entire universe is given."  
  
"Y-Yeah, and what's that?"  
  
"Why Richard, it is a soul's second chance. A chance to judge the judges."  
  
Richard knew then that he wouldn't be getting out of this. He would die this very night; no power, no friends, and no way to stop it. He would die as something that he had strived his entire life to overcome. He would die as a weak small, loner.  
  
Aidan pushed Richard back down to the ground as he stood up. Richard tried vainly to get back up on his legs, when Aidan let out a roar and used both of his legs to prop up the knee then step straight through it. The pressure applies to Richard's leg caused it to snap completely, allowing the bone to break though the flesh that surrounded it. Richard screamed in agony as he felt pain, as he never had before. The pain he had occasionally felt was self inflicted and felt uplifting, while this felt dark and angry and brought hot tears to the cheeks of his face making them moist.  
  
As Richard finally stopped screaming and reserved himself to moans and mumbling, Aidan went behind the bar and picked up two bottles of beer.  
  
"Let's have a toast shall we," Aidan spoke cheerfully as he approached the weeping man.  
  
He opened both beers and handed one to Richard who took it in fright. He watched as the dead man chugged the entire beer in a few seconds and broke the bottom of it on a nearby table creating a series of sharp knives. Aidan then knelt next to the bleeding Richard and spoke, holding the bottle to him menacingly.  
  
"Now Richard, it is my time to judge you. If you answer the questions that I ask you truthfully, then I may take favor upon you and let you live. Now, will you do that for me?"  
  
Richard thought for a moment and then quickly nodded.  
  
"Good, now, why did you and the others murder my family?"  
  
Richard tried to think quickly, "It was all about your dad, he was going to do something that could destroy the group and all of our ambitions."  
  
Aidan press the broken bottle into the neck of Richard, creating a small stream of blood, "What group?"  
  
"G.R.E.A.T, it's a group that your dad was in. He was a leading person and knew all of their secrets, for some reason he left and was branded a traitor. The head guy had us kill him and his family, they didn't tell us why," Richard said quickly.  
  
Aidan seethed with anger, knowing that there was a lot more information that he needed, but he wasn't going to get it here. Aidan stood up from his position over Richard and turned away from him. Richard propped himself up on one hand with a beer in the other.  
  
"Are you going to let me go now?" Richard said hopefully.  
  
"Richard, Richard, you have raped and killed countless people that deserved none of it which is something that is beyond me to judge. But tonight, you overstepped the boundary of your own wickedness into the land of the unforgivable. Not only did you rape my mother, but also you raped my little sister of 5 years. You stole her last possession, which was her innocence. For that, I will let you go."  
  
Richard's mouth curved into a smile as he said these words. He didn't know why Aidan was letting him go but he didn't care why, he cared that he was going to live see all of his dreams come true.  
  
"Yes I will let you go, let you go to the dark pits of hell where you belong!" Aidan screamed as he turned around and plunged the broken end of the bottle into the top of Richard's balding head.  
  
Richard was only able to let out a small gasp as he felt the sharp pointed glass dig into the brain that had conjured so many terrible things and twisted Richard into a demon of disgusting proportions. Richard's arm gave way and he fell back with a thud onto the wood floor, his eyes directed at his beer that still lay in his hand. It was spilling onto the floor, meeting the blood that seeped from his head in a dance of swirling liquids.  
  
And as Richard's vision began to fade to black and his eyes began to glaze over he heard a conjoining of two sounds as he passed from the land of the living to the realm of the dead.  
  
In the land of the living, the sound came out as the scream of a crow.  
  
In the realm of the dead, the sound came out as a single voice in a void of silence, 'Now that's what I call a buzzkill.'  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does. 


	8. Chapter VIII: Flashbacks

_-^-_ Chapter VIII: Flashbacks _-^-_  
  
~ 16 Months Earlier ~  
  
Her eyes inched open as she heard chaotic bells ringing throughout her head. She turned her head slightly to look at her end table and found dark fire numbers glaring back at her telling her the time was 8:17. She groaned at the fact that she had only gotten about 6 hours of sleep opposed to her normal 9. She had been on the phone all night with some of her friends, something she was now desperately regretting. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat there for a while and felt the cool breeze that was blowing in from her open window. She let out a sigh and stood and walked to the mirror.  
  
Chloe stared at the other person in the mirror with disgust; she always looked terrible when she woke up in the mornings. Her hair was all tangled and ensnared looking as a forest of brown thin trees, her face was pale as always a bright moon amid a suede sky, and eyes of blue-green seawater that stared back at themselves with cloudy disorientation which was the result of the Sandman's nightly visit. She turned away from the sight of herself and stepped out of her room. Chloe descended the flight of stairs that was set before her bedroom door and groggily navigated the hallway. She finally stumbled into the kitchen in time to witness their dog, Comedy, tip the box of cereal over spilling its contents in a rainbow wave of marshmallows and toasted bits.  
  
"What the hell?" exclaimed her father as he set his paper down. "Dammit CD."  
  
At that moment the doorbell rang, and as the bells chimed throughout the interior of their home, her father went into a flurry of motion and sound.  
  
"Son of a bitch dog," he spoke as he spilled his coffee into the mess of cereal on the kitchen table as he attempted to restrain the dog from eating the cereal. "Clo, can you get the door?"  
  
Chloe shrugged and went to the foyer. She had no worries of who was behind the large red door, thinking them to probably be Jehovah's Witnesses or solicitors. She swung the large door inward and goggled at the one on the other side.  
  
Standing on her front porch was tall, dark, and handsome teenager. His eyes captured her in a deep embrace of fall leaves that swirled about her in a cyclone of colors. A voice called to her from outside of her autumn storm and pulled her back to the reality of her front porch.  
  
"Hey, I'm here to help paint your house," he said.  
  
"Huh? Oh yeah, come in. My father will be just a second," Chloe said shaking her head, remembering that they had just moved into their new house and it hadn't even been painted yet.  
  
"This is a nice house you have here," the painter commented, trying to make conversation.  
  
"Yeah, we just bought it, we haven't even had it painted yet," Chloe laughed nervously, while mentally punching herself in the head.  
  
"Yeah, I think I got that."  
  
"Yeah, I guess you would."  
  
What followed was an infamous uncomfortable silence. A nervous silence that made the air thick with nervous laughs and toes being stared at. This silence was only broken by Chloe's father bumbling into the front foyer after the dog ran out the open front door.  
  
"That stupid dog, he'll be back," said Mr. Garnet, breathing heavily. After he regained his composure, he noticed the man in the front of his house and extended his hand. "You must be the painter, nice to meet you."  
  
The painter shook his hand firmly and introduced himself, "Nice to meet you too sir. The name's Aidan Paige."  
  
"So, would you like some breakfast or would you like to get started first thing?"  
  
Chloe prayed inside her head that he would sit down to breakfast with her but was disappointed by his answer, "Ah, no that's ok sir. Might as well get started as soon as possible."  
  
The two men stepped out the front door and around the back. Chloe resigned herself from following and walked to the kitchen to have her breakfast. Chloe didn't get a chance to talk to the man of autumn Aidan Paige until around 5 o'clock that day when he was painting a side of her house that sat just below her bedroom window. He was standing on a ladder that reached all the way to her window. He had asked her to put a few paint cans on her windowsill and she had obliged. Chloe was silently watching him from above as he moved his paintbrush back and forth across the wall of her home. She sighed at the sight of him, she wanted to get to know him but she had no idea how.  
  
'Maybe I should just ask him out or something,' Chloe thought to herself, but she then shook her head and deemed herself to chicken to try. She sighed again and leaned forward. The weight of her push pitched the two cans of open paint from her windowsill to the space below. Things seemed to go in slow motion as Chloe watched the paint cans fall. She made a swipe for the cans but missed by an inch or two. Her eyes bulged in her head as she remembered the person sitting below her window.  
  
She watched in hopeless horror as the autumn man was doused in gray paint from head to toe. Chloe saw him tense as the thick cold liquid made contact with his skin. Luckily he kept his hold on the sides of the ladder for if he had not he would have plummeted along side the two empty buckets of paint.  
  
Aidan didn't see the two paint cans fall and he didn't here the gasp that escaped the lips of Chloe who was right above him. He only noticed the paint was when he was hit with a wave of gray sky that painted him as a cloud. He felt as if it was raining paint and he had just been caught in the storm. After the paint had finished soaking him from head to toe. He turned his head upward and saw the girl he had seen that morning.  
  
She had seemed a bit dim this morning and he would have thought her to be now if he hadn't seen the look and feel of her eyes on him. Her eyes were wide with horror and her face looked stricken and paler than she had been that morning making her as white as paper. Aidan became lost in her seawater eyes, swimming in the irises of her eyes and drinking them in as if they were an aphrodisiac. Her hair was framing her face as she looked down at him, like a forest of trees holding a giant pearl within itself.  
  
He saw her beautiful face and the look of fright that held it, and couldn't help himself. He smiled up at her, causing her demon of fright to slowly slink away and lifting the corners of her mouth into a beautiful smile holding white teeth of ivory. They both began to laugh at the events that had occurred.  
  
_-^-_ Present _-^-_  
  
The two's laughter swallowed both of them into a swirl of flower petals that smelled of roses and faded to black. This was always the way that Chloe's memory of her and Aidan's first meeting ended and she savored it every time. She took a deep breath through her nostrils and caught a small hint of roses and sighed. She had met her Aidan only a year and four months ago and now they were getting married.  
  
That made her smile. She loved the sound of it. They were getting married. She would be Chloe Paige, Mrs. Aidan Paige. She couldn't wait until that day. The day when she would be guaranteed the rest of her life with her love, Aidan Paige. Her heart fluttered just at the thought of spending the rest of her life with that man. Them living in a small two-story home, white picket fence in the front, dog running rampant in the back, and the two of them sitting on their front porch swinging on a love-seat swing. Chloe snuggled against his chest and him with his arm around her. Chloe's heart began to fly around and around inside her chest and only settled back down when she heard a jingling of keys on their street in front of their house.  
  
Chloe sat up from the swing that she was sitting in and saw a dark figure standing at the door of Aidan's car. She heard a key entered into the lock and the door swing open. Chloe acted immediately.  
  
"Hey, what the hell are you doing? Get away from that car right now!" Chloe exclaimed, then another though raced to the forefront of her mind; how did this person have the keys to Aidan's car? "Where did you get those keys? Have you done something to Aidan?"  
  
The person had frozen when she had first spoke up and now was closing the door still frozen. Chloe had moved close enough to be able to describe the pattern on his silken black shirt, which was a sea of black glistening scales.  
  
"I don't want to hurt you Chloe. Don't make me turn around. Turn around, go back up to your porch and forget you ever saw me here," the mysterious man spoke, painfully.  
  
This statement frightened Chloe, but the fact that he had tried to command her gave her renewed courage. "Whoever you are, turn around this instant and explain your actions, and don't try anything funny because I have a knife in my pocket and I am not afraid to cut your fucking balls off!"  
  
The man sighed shakily (and Chloe thought she distinctly saw tears fall to the cement) and slowly turned around, and as he did so Chloe whipped out her pocketknife and switched into place with the longest and sharpest blade out. The man finally was facing her with his head down and his earlobe length hair hiding his face.  
  
Chloe was snarling with her arm and knife held poised to slash when the man raised his head to face her. When she saw his facial features time stopped for Chloe Garnet and the only sound that she could hear was her pocketknife clattering to the sidewalk beneath her.  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does _-^-_ 


	9. Chapter IX: Blame

_-^-_ Chapter IX: Blame _-^-_  
  
Lights flashed everywhere in a dance of shadows and colors, dizzying the observers and bringing them to the point of vomiting after they had seen the horror held within the house that they stood in. There was blood everywhere and the sight of the three dead bodies was enough to make grown man weep. And many of the religious people who were in the home did. They cried for the three dead beings and for their pain that they had suffered. But most of their salt-laced tears were focused upon the small child that lay mutilated and violated. Her small life plucked from her heart along with her innocence, both in crude, disgusting, and vile ways.  
  
None of this bothered the police captain, who knelt on the tiled floor just before the mess of blood and bodily fluids. He had seen far too much in his 40 years on the force to be fazed by the killing of two parents and a small child. But he was annoyed now and in a large percent because he was supposed to be getting away from this job in a week when he was to retire. But this seemed like one of those long cases where you have to track down the killer for long periods of time. And he did not want to put up with that at the moment.  
  
His thoughts were abruptly halted when an officer came up to him and told him what the neighbors had said.  
  
"Captain, I just spoke with one of the neighbors and she has said that there is one body missing," spoke the young cop hurriedly.  
  
This caused the captain to widen his eyes only slightly so that you wouldn't have noticed it unless you were looking good and hard for it.  
  
"Another body? What the hell are you talking about?" the Captain said his annoyance brimming to the top of his tolerant levels.  
  
"Well, she said that there was a son too, teenager with semi-long light brown hair and brown eyes. She said that he was a nice kid and he was always really friendly to her. She said that he would never do something like this.  
  
The Captain shook his head, "There's no telling what a person will or will not do in a spur of the moment situation. There's just no telling..Well, we need to look for this kid and ask him some questions first of all."  
  
"Yes sir, the neighbor said that this son, Aidan Paige, had a girlfriend too, name of Chloe Garnet."  
  
"Well, pull up her address and contact her. We'll question her as well."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
The policemen set off again and left the captain on his lonesome. He thought about how disgusting this was. He had seen some terrible things in his time but this was ranking in the top ten for sure. But if his theory was right, then this was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen in his 40 years in this damn state.  
  
His theory was terrible and his mind was almost to the point of rejecting the idea, he hated it so much. His theory was that Aidan Paige had gone on a rampage for some unknown reason. He had proceeded to hack and mutilate his family with some unknown knife or sword after he had raped his sister and his mother.  
  
The idea made him shudder and combined with all of his other mixed feelings that were brewing and stewing in his stomach, it almost made him vomit, which he kept down in his stomach admirably.  
  
He turned from the horror of mutilated bodies and thoughts of incest and murder with a sigh, knowing that he needed a cigarette and a beer or he'd go insane.  
  
_-^-_  
  
Chloe was frozen in her spot. She couldn't hear anything for time had seemed to stop. She had no idea what was happening around her but she did know whom the person who stood in front of her was. The man who stood before her was a dark, sad, painted version of her fiancé. He looked elegantly primal with his beautiful featured face coated with contrasting white and black in thick stripes and a wide black smile that went from ear to ear.  
  
When time seemed to begin again, she regained her composure and jumped at him in a big hug with a smile planted on her face. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and nestled her head into the nape of his neck. She was dismayed, however, by the fact that he didn't react whatsoever to her hug.  
  
She let go of him slowly and stood in front of him with her head down. She didn't understand anything about his visit and so she looked back to his face with confusion and questions painting her face. He was staring back at her when she looked at him with clear tears streaming alongside his black tears. His autumn orbs were glassy and she felt that if they were hit right now then they would be broken into a thousand pieces.  
  
She reached up to wipe the tears away but was stopped by Aidan's first reaction thus far when he grabbed her hand. Chloe didn't understand any of this.  
  
"What's the matter Aidan? You seem so..tortured..and tired," Chloe said speaking the first thing that came to mind.  
  
"Because I have endured more than a mortal or eternal man has ever lived through," Aidan spoke.  
  
"What are you talking about Aid?"  
  
"I'm talking of the life that I can never have and the death that I now live."  
  
"But, Aid, we're going to have a life together. That's the life you're going to have. And you're not living death. I mean that's kind of absurd," Chloe said with a small laugh.  
  
A crow came in a rush of spears and night and perched itself atop Aidan's shoulder. Aidan turned his head to the carrion and listened as the crow went about cawing for a few seconds. Chloe didn't understand anything that was happening to her right now. Aidan was talking in riddles and wasn't making any sense, he was painted up so much she could barely tell it was him, and now he was nodding and talking to a crow on his shoulder.  
  
"So they believe that theory?" Aidan said to the bird on his shoulder.  
  
The crow went into a series of screams and then left his shoulder and into the night. Aidan turned to his fiancé.  
  
"Chloe, I don't want to hurt you and now is not the time for me to explain everything for I do not have much time. But do not believe anything that the police say about me, for none are the words of truth. Just know that I will be back but only for a short time."  
  
Aidan turned on his heel and opened and entered his car. He turned the ignition key and gave one last sad look to his fiancé and then was off tearing down the road. Chloe moved to stand in the spot that the car had once been and watched the car even after it had turned out of sight.  
  
Her mind was going at full speed trying to think of a different explanation for his last words than the one she had come up with.  
  
'. . .I will be back but only for a short time.'  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does _-^-_ 


	10. Chapter X: Love and Guns

_-^-_ Chapter X: Love and Guns _-^-_  
  
Black asphalt flew under the night sky as stars twinkled in their vagueness. The road painted in white and yellow lines of life and law. The partial moon shone with the white of bone with gray craters pock-marking its solid surface. Darkness covered the ground as a bride's veil at her own funeral. The shadows converged around a solitary piece of metal and wire that flew across the night faster than the crow flies. These shadows skulked around this single piece of light in their domain of dark as an angry child when it is denied a toy. They wished to swallow this dark-gray bird of fire in one gulp and digest it into yet another minion of the night. Little did the shadows know that the ultimate darkness was the driver of this dark fire car.  
  
This tragic clown who twisted the night to his own design paid no mind to these shadows for his mind was far from this stretch of road under the moon and sky. His thoughts and mind had moved across time and space to a point in time that tortured his mind with its promised faces and tortured his soul with his once felt life and love. The wheels that churned his thoughts about in the inner-workings of his gray matter where moving at a furious pace as a they drudged up long locked away memories that only now really meant something.  
  
With his enhanced senses and his perfect remembrance of this certain memory, Aidan Paige was able to smell his memory, he was able to hear his memory, and he was able to see his memory. Images of Ferris Wheels flashed across his light-brown orbs, smells of cotton candy and funnel cakes wafted into his open nostrils, and sounds of happy couples and families flew from his mind into his ears in a torrent of perpetual thought and memory.  
  
~  
  
"Oh my god, I don't think I've ever had something that tasted this good," said a high, muffled voice.  
  
"I told you so, I mean come on, you can't go to a fair and not have funnel cakes. It goes against tradition," said another lower voice sounding very proud of itself.  
  
"Yes you were right love, happy now?"  
  
"Very," responded the lower voice, who pulled the other towards him and met in the middle with their lips pressed together in a love felt kiss.  
  
Their lips encompassed each other's in an embrace of flesh and soon their mouths were in a battle of tongues as they massaged and attacked each other. Their mind was momentarily blank from the feel of flesh against flesh and each other's tongue in their mouths.  
  
Aidan and Chloe pulled away simultaneously and each took a calming breath, letting it out in a sigh. They pushed their hair-veiled foreheads together and closed their eyes.  
  
"It's getting harder isn't it, to keep from going further?" said an out-of- breath Chloe.  
  
"Yeah it is, I can't keep my hands off of you," said an equally out-of- breath Aidan.  
  
"You know I want to but-"  
  
"Shhh, there's nothing to talk about baby. I could wait for all eternity for you. Trust me, I can wait."  
  
Chloe only nodded with her eyes starting to water. Aidan saw this and pulled her into a compassionate hug.  
  
"Don't cry baby, there's nothing for you to cry about."  
  
"I just want you to be happy," said Chloe through her tears.  
  
Aidan lifted her head upwards towards him with his hand under her chin. He then went to work kissing her tears away softly from under her eyes and cheeks.  
  
"I am happy Clo, I couldn't be happier. Please kill me now for I would die the happiest man on Earth. I'm happy because I'm with you Chloe. I love you."  
  
"I love you too."  
  
Aidan wrapped a warm arm around Chloe's slender shoulders and turned her moist face to the scene before her.  
  
"So lets be happy and enjoy he night. We're at a fair after all, might as well have a good time."  
  
Chloe nodded, wiped her moist face on her sleeve and turned her eyes towards the fair in front of her.  
  
Lights were everywhere; there were lights in the concession stands, in the game huts, on the rides, everywhere. And people were constantly milling about the grounds with all kinds of different assortments of food in their hands or mouths. Couples walked here and there hand in hand and families walked about with children tugging on their parents' sleeves asking for a toy or to go on a ride or something of that nature.  
  
An atmosphere of joy and happiness had settled across the flat blades of grass and in the hearts of the people in attendance. A smell of cotton candy and funnel cakes surveyed the area from the inside of people's noses. The sight of spinning metal and Ferris Wheels danced across the eyes of all. The sounds of happy couples engrossed in one another and families having an enjoyable time with one another slipped into the ears of the attendees.  
  
Chloe and Aidan smiled at one another and set off along the Midway.  
  
~  
  
The rest of the night went like a blur of a speeding car for the happy young couple. They went on countless rides countless times. They ate all assortments of fair food ranging from corn dogs to cotton candy to even more funnel cakes. By the time that Chloe and Aidan left there were few people left and the fair was closing down. The abundant lights were out from the loss of power, the game huts were closed up, and the concession stands were stopping their flow of delicious fair food.  
  
Aidan and Chloe however were still having a great time. As the lights behind them gradually blinked into nothingness, they were sprinting across the street hand in hand, dodging cars here and there. The aftermath of their hours of fun were apparent on their faces and in their throats for smiles of joy were plastered across their features and haphazard laughter escaped their lips and into the night, adding to the waning atmosphere of joy.  
  
As they finally crossed the river of asphalt, they stumbled over the curb and fell to the grass in a swirl of laughter and grins. They rolled for awhile amongst the blades of grass in their happiness, forgetting about everything just knowing that this night was one of the greatest times that they had had or would ever have. After a few minutes of rolling around and sending bits of grass flying into the night sky and blowing into the stars, they stopped. They were both out of breath but wee still chuckling in a small way.  
  
They moved close together on the front lawn of Wal-Mart. They held each other close and stopped speaking; just feeling each other's presence in their arms. The heat from one another's body mended together to make a quilt of love and happiness.  
  
As Aidan and Chloe lay there with their bodies cuddled into one another, the world melted away. They were left to themselves in a green room of a splendor so great that it went on forever. Nothing mattered anymore for the young couple. Nothing could touch them in this moment. They were invulnerable and unbreakable from the world at this moment. They were literally in heaven on Earth.  
  
Then, as quickly as the moment had started. . . it was over. They opened their eyes and looked at each other with love that filled their very soul, was the very center of their heart, and encompassed heir mind in rose petals.  
  
Time stopped for a split second that only Aidan and Chloe felt but they paid not attention to time or life for they had each other. If they had pain attention, they would have distinctly heard a crow scream in the distance.  
  
_-^-_  
  
Aidan could barely stand it. Life had dealt him a fated hand. A hand where he was disillusioned to the fact that his life would end in happy ignorant bliss, but then, at his happiest moment of life, his fated hand had turned into flames and life had come crashing down, leaving death in its wake. Although life had broken him, the crow had come with tape to mend him.  
  
And although Aidan knew that he had been given another hand after death, he still hated it. Life had taken away his love, his happiness, and yet he would long for it as long as he stayed in death. He would long for it in the world beyond as well, not ever being able to feel it again but only able to watch it from a distance. Watching Chloe marry another man and raise a family, watch as the world forgot him. It would be like death all over again.  
  
These thoughts boiled his blood and his knuckles turned white in his grip, mimicking the moon. The anger in his heart pushed against its cage of his chest and fought to unleash itself upon the world. Aidan's foot floored the accelerator and sent his Firebird in a blur of perpetual motion. His anger fought hard to the point that it was pumping blood from the vantage point of his throat. It grabbed his vocal chords and expressed his anger in a long commanding roar that shook the air that rushed past the flying car and awoke creatures in the fields he passed.  
  
Aidan screamed and screamed and screamed. Venting a miniscule part of his bottled pain and anger. Pain toward the life he no longer led and would never lead again. Anger toward hat very same life that turned its back on him and left him to fall into the arms of death, which embraced him in its icy grip.  
  
In his red filled vision, Aidan came upon a new sight. Ahead of him, only a few miles across the flat landscape, a sat a small building with a single lamppost standing in front, bathing the building in a blinking, fading yellow light. The rage in Aidan's throat slowly descended once again into his chest, leaving his scream to the distance of the dark. His vision subsided to normal color and shades, leaving the red to the back of his orbs.  
  
As the car got closer to the solitary building, Aidan was able to make out gas pumps sitting in the front of the building. He passed a glance to his gas gauge and found he was running on empty. Aidan smiled at the coincidence and decided to stop.  
  
Aidan coasted into the gas station and parked alongside the pump. He stepped out of the car and heard the crow perch itself atop the lamppost.  
  
'Hey boy, we don't have time to screw around. We have to get moving. Dammit get back here! We have to go! Do you hear me?!?' screeched the crow in annoyance.  
  
Aidan stopped but didn't turn back and said, "Do not worry bird, I shall be done shortly."  
  
Aidan started walking again and entered the dimly lit insides of the small squat building while the crow mumbled behind him.  
  
'Stupid - ungrateful - sonofabitch.'  
  
Aidan entered and the first thing he noticed was the smell of rotten food. In the dim, blinking light he saw small pastries and donuts molded over in green disgusting that let off a smell that curbed the appetite and caused any food left in one's stomach to come to the back of your throat.  
  
Aidan turned from the green mold and looked for the owner of this wretched establishment. Hi dead eyes fell upon a boot that was propped against the back of the counter. Aidan got closer and saw the owner of the gas station, who was sitting in a lawn chair asleep. Aidan cocked his head to the side and wondered what miracle of science kept this pathetic being together.  
  
Aidan reared his fist back and pounded into the top of the counter, leaving a large hole. The commotion of the breaking counter awoke the owner who stumbled to his feet with his found shotgun in his hand. He pressed the barrel of the gun into the chest of the intruder with wide eyes and shaking hands.  
  
"Who the - What the hell are you?" said the frightened man, pressing the barrel harder into the other man's chest.  
  
"Why, I am the holder of your strings meat puppet. I am the fear in your heart, the darkness I your soul, and the death in your mind," responded Aidan, spying holes and trail marks across the man's arm.  
  
"You better get the hell out of here or I'll blow your fucking head off."  
  
The man was still shaking from waking off a nod and from surprise from seeing Aidan there. The man was clearly terrified and Aidan might as well use that.  
  
He thrust his right palm into the chest of the junkie, sending him into the wall behind him and with his left hand grabbed the falling shotgun out of the air. The man watched with wide terrified eyes as the tragic clown before him pointed the barrel at him, but then quickly turned it upon himself with the barrel pointed at his chest and his arm stretched to the trigger.  
  
Aidan gave the owner a wicked sneer and pulled the trigger. The incurring explosion sent Aidan flying to the ground. The owner yelled at the sound of the gun going off and then shook terribly after the intruder had fallen to the ground. He hesitantly moved forward and looked over the counter at the man on the floor. He quickly vomited at the sight of the man's chest, which was destroyed in a jungle of blood and organs, giving sharp, red contrast to the white bone that shone in the dim light.  
  
A crow flew in through a broken window and landed on a stand of donuts. It screamed in a way that hurt the owners' ears, which he quickly covered. His eyes grew to the size of baseballs as he watched the clown's chest begin to mend itself under the crow's scream. The sprayed blood that had flown across the room was now moving on its own and putting themselves back into his veins. His glistening white bones knitted themselves together and were soon covered by reattaching muscle and flesh. The crow finally stopped screaming, leaving the clown lying on the floor with a repaired chest and a white shirt with a huge hole in it.  
  
The intruders' eyes snapped open and h gracefully got to his feet with his face inches away from the gas station owner's, a burning hatred in his eyes and grimace of anger on his painted smile.  
  
"Save you life, don't waste it. Death can come at any moment in time, with fair warning or not. Drugs will never help you with this reality, only cause more pain," said Aidan, slowly moving back.  
  
The owner began to weep in his hands and nodded feverently. He moved around the corner of the counter, went out the back door, got in his car, and sped off into the night. This left only Aidan Paige and the crow, standing in a run down gas station among molded pastries and the smell of gun powder. Aidan turned to the fading taillights of the owner's car and smiled. He knew that he had done well for the world of the living as he watched it from the realm of the dead.  
  
'Are you happy now? Now we are even farther behind because you have a fetish for being a hero. Stupid prick,' said an annoyed bird.  
  
Aidan just looked at the crow and shook his head. He looked at the shotgun on the ground and picked it up. He then reached behind the counter, finding dust-covered boxes of ammunition that he brought up to the top of the counter, setting them around the hole. He gather them up and carried them out before leaving his credit card on the counter for the gun, ammunition, and gas.  
  
He piled the boxes of shotgun shells into the passenger seat and then loaded the shotgun with 5 shells. Aidan pumped the shotgun with a final series of clicks and sounds. He smiled sadistically at the crow and knew that although he had done life well earlier, now was the time to pay life back for his pain.  
  
_-^-_ Disclaimer: I do not own The Crow, James O'Barr does. _-^-_ 


End file.
